Late Work is Minus 15

Ok I deserve a F. How dare I not blog! However, like in any classroom setting, I would like to give an excuse for my late work. I went to work at 10 AM and didn't get off until 7. Still plenty of time to blog right? WRONG! I had been working on my lesson plans for next week during each break and lunch but I still had to type them. I didn't finish until 3:30 AM. Yes I had a whole 7 hrs before work but for some reason I really felt like a little sleep would do me some good. Anywho sorry!

Grading Tests = A Whole Roll of Tums

So what's more disappointing then taking a test and failing? Having your students take a test and fail. In high school I was the girl that only made A's. I cried the first time I saw a B on one of my daily grades but I never received below 91 on my report card. I couldn't believe it the first time I made a C on my Pre-AP Calculus test. I went home and absorbed all I could. I even called the teacher. I felt terrible! Now I'm preparing to work at the retail store and all I can think about is that class with an avg of about 50-60 on their first test. Did I not tell them something correctly? What was I thinking going through everything so quickly. Maybe I should have been louder or asked more questions or wrote more down or made them write more down or given more homework or quizzed more or not done that lab or... Yea I'm definitely not happy right now. I let them take a 10 question retest but they missed from 2-5 problems and I even stood in front of them before handing out the test and gave them the exact information they needed. Maybe I should work on getting my Masters and let someone else handle the upset stomach and migraine filled grading.

You Rock!!!

So I've noticed something ... people do not praise others enough. Today I told some of the kids 'Wow you're doing such a great job! Ya'll are so smart!' A girl in the group looked at me and asked 'Are you being serious?' How does someone so young hear so many negative things that they don't believe one positive statement??? I think its extremely important to let someone know if they are meeting/exceeding your expectations. It seems like we always notice the negative things but never discuss the good. When was the last time you mentioned that great thing your husband, children, sibling, or co-worker did? Now, when was the last time you yelled at them? See what I mean? For example, I worked with two different classes using the same lab. The first teacher told me I did a great job and he loved the way I walked around and talked to the students. This calmed me down and gave me confidence in my abilities. The second teacher pointed out four things I did wrong and had nothing positive to say. My confidence went right down the toilet. Moral of the story is let people know you appreciate their hard work. People want to feel good about themselves and if you let them know they are doing a good job they will work harder to keep that satisfactory feeling of worthy praise. Till next time then!

If I'd Only Known

So school has been in session for 2 weeks and already I'm ready to sleep during the cooperating teacher's lesson. I wake up for school at 6 AM and get back from school at about 4:30 PM. Then I work in a retail store from 5:00 PM until 9:00 PM. After this I work on homework and lesson plans and finally head to bed. EXHAUSTED is not even close to how I feel by the end of the day. I've also been given the privilege of teaching all of the chemistry classes starting next week and I'm freaking out. I have no idea if I can keep going. Honestly I think doing alternative certification would have been a better idea. Only problem with that route is what if I hate teaching and I'd be on contract for atleast a year. On the other hand I'd be getting paid for teaching so I wouldn't have to work two jobs and would probably have more sleep. It might be too early to tell but I think I've made a bad choice. On a different note I love my students. Their annoying and rowdy and so much fun. I'm hoping that I figure this teaching thing out so I can keep meeting new bright kids who are too young to know what the real world will do to them. Well tomorrow I will be teaching so it's time for bed. Hopefully I'll be more inspiring tomorrow. :)

Beginnings

First of all let me explain why I'm here. I'm currently student teaching and working about 30 hrs per week. Since I'm going to be needing some type of stress relief I thought I would write and share my limited knowledge with the world. I'm not going to include my name or my school just in case something is said that might upset the masses. Now let the posting begin!